Adelyn Rose

Well she is finally here and she was so worth the wait.  We were blessed with the birth of our little girl, Adelyn (Addie) Rose, on Sunday September 4th at 3:10pm.  She weighed 8 lbs 14 oz and was 19 inches long.  Below is her birth story if you would like to read it:

We spent the day together as a family on Saturday with some good quality time with Jackson since our little man was turning three.  I'll definitely be posting another one soon to reflect on what joy that little guy has brought us and what a blessing that extra year with him was.  We tried to go to Little Amerikka but the rain got a hold of us so we headed to an indoor play center and celebrated our little man turning three.  Then Saturday night we grilled out and had cake and ice cream at our house.  We had a planned induction for Sunday because Doctor Bathke, my OB, was on call that day.  So Sunday morning we got up as usual, got showered, packed and ready for the hospital.  It was so surreal to drive off knowing we were going to have a baby but not having labor pains/contractions.

We arrived at the hospital and checked in.  It took about an hour before they starting talking to us about what our induction options would be.  We decided to start with breaking my water before we would try Pitocin.  A resident came in to try and do that but had a little trouble so Doc. Bathke came in and did a little bit later.  We waited.  I killed Michael in probably the cribbage game of my life. . .and nothing happened.  So about noon we started talking about Pitocin.  At that point-I said go ahead.  It had been long enough.  By the time they gave it to me and got me hooked up to it we were hitting about 12:30pm.  The contractions really started about 1:00pm.  Our nurse, Nancy, was fantastic and helped to keep on eye on things for us.  By 1:30pm our contractions were three minutes apart and by 2:00pm I was in some pretty bad pain and ready to start thinking about some pain relief.  I mentioned this and they gave me a neomorphine drug to hold me over until the epidural came.  Well when the anesthesiologist said I had to sit up to get the epidural (about 2:45pm) I felt the need to push.  Needless to say the docs came in so I could and by 3:06 I was pushing, by 3:10pm she was here.  What a contrast to the four hours of pushing with Jackson.

When Addie came out we didn't get to cut the cord and they took her away from us pretty quickly.  Luckily I didn't know what was happening but Michael saw it all.  Our doctors handled it so well.  She was born with the cord wrapped around her neck.  They cut and clamped the cord, took her into the back room, gave her a shot of something to get her breathing, and then helped her 'wake up.'  As we sat waiting, I kept asking Michael, why do I not hear any noise, and I don't know that I have ever heard a sweeter sound then when she cried from the room beside us.  We knew we had a great Doctor but I am even more grateful for Dr. Bathke and Michael's calm spirit through it all.  I really had no clue what was going on until much later.

So here we sit, in a dim hospital room, with contemplative music playing on the tv as pictures of beautiful landscape scroll through...and we are soaking up every single moment of wonder and awe that this.  Thank you God for a beautiful and healthy daughter.  Thank you for a safe delivery and thanks for all the people in our lives who have been praying, supporting and encouraging us along the way.

Only wonder comprehends anything.  

Gregory of Nyssa